History EarlyInstallmentWeirdness / ProWrestling

** Wrestling/TommyDreamer started off as a pretty boy babyface who wouldn't have looked out of place tag teaming with [[Wrestling/BuffBagwell Marcus Alexander Bagwell]] on ''WCW Saturday Night''. Naturally the ECW mutants [[XPacHeat absolutely hated his guts]], though he would later earn their respect and basically become [=ECW's=] Wrestling/{{Sting}}.

* Most wrestling fans will instantly recognize Wrestling/ShawnMichaels' entrance music. Most fans also know that it's Shawn himself singing the lyrics. Most ''younger'' fans (as in started watching wrestling in 1994 or later) probably don't know that for the first couple years he used it he wasn't singing, his then-manager Wrestling/SherriMartel was.

* The tradition that pay-per-view events are held on Sunday night wasn't firmly established until 1995. Prior to that ''Wrestling/SurvivorSeries'' was held on Thanksgiving[[note]]The fourth Thursday of November for the non-Americans. Speaking of which, ''Survivor Series'' was only created to run directly against the NWA ''Starrcade'' PPV, unlike with the ''Royal Rumble'' mentioned above (which was two months after this) this time it absolutely destroyed the [=NWA's=] buyrate thanks to Vince telling the PPV companies that if they carried ''Starrcade'' they wouldn't get ''Wrestling/WrestleMania''. As a result the [=NWA's=] first PPV only picked up a measly '''20,000''' PPV buys, or a tenth of what the ''Bunkhouse Stampede'' show brought in despite having a much stronger card. This was basically the opening shot in the long-running [[Wrestling/MondayNightWars WWF/WCW war]] and while ''Starrcade'' being a money loser wasn't the only reason Jim Crockett Promotions became insolvent it was definitely a big step in the wrong direction[[/note]] (or the night before Thanksgiving) and ''Wrestling/SummerSlam'' was usually on Monday. Starting in 2021 WWE has mostly moved these events to Saturday, or in the case of ''Wrestling/WrestleMania'', Saturday ''and'' Sunday.

* The first Wrestling/RoyalRumble in 1988 featured only 20 wrestlers instead of 30, and was shown free on the USA network rather than on pay-per-view[[note]]Solely to screw with the buyrate of the Wrestling/{{NWA}} ''Bunkhouse Stampede'' PPV, which aired at the same time. It didn't really work, the ''Stampede'' show did a pretty respectable 200,000 buys, well above what the average buyrate would be for the next 6 years until Wrestling/HulkHogan arrived. The Rumble was still such a ratings success that it was made a PPV the next year. The NWA would respond to this by having their first ''Clash of the Champions'' show run opposite that year's ''Wrestling/WrestleMania'' (at which point the cable companies told both promotions to knock it off because it was costing them money), this also did fantastic ratings and the ''COTC'' shows ran quarterly until 1998, when 3 hour episodes of ''WCW Monday Nitro'' made them redundant[[/note]]. The stipulation that the winner would main event Wrestling/WrestleMania wasn't added until the 1993 edition.

* Wrestling/ImpactWrestling started out as "NWA-TNA" running $10 weekly pay-per-view events (rather than more expensive monthly or quarterly events), heavily emphasized the [[{{Fanservice}} T-and-A]] that it was originally named to suggest (including having scantily-clad dancers in cages, taking the Wrestling/{{WCW}} Nitro Girls concept up to eleven), and it was affiliated with the Wrestling/NationalWrestlingAlliance to give its titles some degree of credibility. Most of these components disappeared after the first couple of years, some much sooner.

* The first Wrestling/RoyalRumble in 1988 featured only 20 wrestlers instead of 30, and was shown free on the USA network rather than on pay-per-view[[note]]Solely to screw with the buyrate of the Wrestling/{{NWA}} ''Bunkhouse Stampede'' PPV, which aired at the same time. It didn't really work, the ''Stampede'' show did a pretty respectable 200,000 buys, well above what the average buyrate would be for the next 6 years until Wrestling/HulkHogan arrived. The Rumble was still such a ratings success that it was made a PPV the next year. The NWA would respond to this by having their first ''Clash of the Champions'' show run opposite that year's ''Wrestling/WrestleMania'' (at which point the cable companies told both promotions to knock it off because it was costing them money), this also did fantastic ratings and the ''COTC'' shows ran quarterly until 1998, when 3 hour episodes of ''WCW Monday Nitro''made them redundant[[/note]]. The stipulation that the winner would main event Wrestling/WrestleMania wasn't added until the 1993 edition.

* The first Wrestling/RoyalRumble in 1988 featured only 20 wrestlers instead of 30, and was shown free on the USA network rather than on pay-per-view[[note]]Solely to screw with the buyrate of the Wrestling/{{NWA}} ''Bunkhouse Stampede'' PPV, which aired at the same time. It didn't really work, the ''Stampede'' show did a pretty respectable 200,000 buys, well above what the average buyrate would be for the next 6 years until Wrestling/HulkHogan. The Rumble was still such a ratings success that it was made a PPV the next year. The NWA would respond to this by having their first ''Clash of the Champions'' show run opposite that year's ''Wrestling/WrestleMania'' (at which point the cable companies told both promotions to knock it off because it was costing them money), this also did fantastic ratings and the ''COTC'' shows ran quarterly until 1998, when 3 hour episodes of ''WCW Monday Nitro''made them redundant[[/note]]. The stipulation that the winner would main event Wrestling/WrestleMania wasn't added until the 1993 edition.

* The first Wrestling/RoyalRumble in 1988 featured only 20 wrestlers instead of 30. The stipulation that the winner would main event Wrestling/WrestleMania wasn't added until the 1993 edition.

* Wrestling/{{ECW}} was initially an old school regional based promotion [[note]]The E originally stood for "Eastern."[[/note]] before it adopted garbage wrestling and a heavier, more "extreme" atmosphere.

* Prior to the rise of the Wrestling/NationalWrestlingAlliance 1948, the rival sports of pro boxing and pro wrestling were largely governed by the same athletic commission in the USA. Despite the rise of the NWA and UWA, however, a good deal of Mexican Lucha Libre is still governed by the same commission that handles boxing, though it is still a minor example since it used to be known as the ''wrestle'' y box, rather than the box y ''lucha libre''.

* Wrestling/ImpactWrestling started out as "NWA-TNA" running $10 weekly pay-per-view events (rather than more expensive monthly or quarterly events), heavily emphasized the [[{{Fanservice}} T-and-A]] that it was originally named to suggest (including having scantily-clad dancers in cages, taking the Wrestling/{{WCW}} Nitro Girls concept UpToEleven), and it was affiliated with the Wrestling/NationalWrestlingAlliance to give its titles some degree of credibility. Most of these components disappeared after the first couple of years, some much sooner.

* Watch any wrestler work a gimmick they had before becoming famous (e.g. Wrestling/TheUndertaker during his "Mean" Mark Callous days), or during their days as a jobber or jobber-to-the-stars before they received gimmicks in the first place, and it will feel weird watching it.

* ''WWF Saturday Night Shotgun'' was originally envisioned as a BShow aimed at replicating the feel of Wrestling/{{ECW}}, which it did in two major ways: First, it was both HotterAndSexier and DarkerAndEdgier than the main WWF product, which was still experimenting with such content at the time but had yet to fully embrace the Wrestling/AttitudeEra. Second, the show was taped at unique venues that would never have otherwise seen a major wrestling show; these were mostly bars, but it also included New York Penn Station for an episode. After just six episodes in this format, the logistical issues of securing and setting up unconventional venues for tapings resulted in the show being [[{{Retool}} Retooled]] into a far more standard BShow taped adjacent to ''[[Wrestling/WWERaw Monday Night Raw]]'', a format it remained in for the rest of its run.

* The first Wrestling/WrestleMania is the only one not to have a major title defense (the main event was a tag team match featuring champion Wrestling/HulkHogan). It's also the only one that has closing credits. The second Wrestling/WrestleMania was held in three different arenas (New York, Chicago, and Los Angeles) and was held on a Monday night.

* The first Wrestling/WrestleMania is the only one not to have a major title defense (the main event was a tag team match featuring champion Wrestling/HulkHogan). The second Wrestling/WrestleMania was held in three different arenas (New York, Chicago, and Los Angeles) and was held on a Monday night.

* The first Diva Search took place in 2003. It wasn't much more than a fan vote on the internet, and only had four contestants. The winner was a fitness model named Jamie Koeppe, who did one photoshoot for WWE magazine and was [[ChuckCunninghamSyndrome never heard from]] in the wrestling world again. It wasn't until the next one that the Diva Search became something that occurred on the live shows.

* Wrestling/NewJapanProWrestling's NEVER(New Blood Evolution Valiantly Eternal Radical) shows were supposed to be about young up and coming talent and independent circuit wrestlers who had not yet or had no desire to sign onto a major promotion long term. However, the NEVER Openweight Title belt has become best known for Wrestling/KatsuyoriShibata's battles to prove his superiority to New Japan's "Third Generation" and while many of the NEVER Six Man TagTeam Title holders are young and or independent wrestlers just as many have been in the major promotions for quite awhile such as Toru Yano Wrestling/SatoshiKojima.